Malindo Air enters Indian skies

Flying in that sliver of airspace between business and budget, Malindo Air will touch down in India this month. A joint venture between Lion Air of Indonesia and the National Aerospace and Defence Industries of Malaysia, the ‘hybrid’ airline features full service at fares lower than many an ‘economy’ carrier. Ticket prices will be all-inclusive, including meals and baggage, and even in-flight entertainment. This promises to shake-up the mile-high market quite a bit in this country. Weekly flights from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur are the first sector of attack, at fares around Rs 17,000 (return), to be followed by flights to Mumbai. Success is uncertain, given that AirAsia X shut its flights down in both sectors last year, citing high operational costs. It will also be interesting to watch how AirAsia India, the new joint venture between AirAsia, Tata and Telstra, counters Malindo’s projected flightpath to success.

Runway rights

Commit to connect — or pay the price. That’s the injunction Indian airlines should glean from the National Consumer Disputes Commission’s recent decision in a case where a couple of senior citizens accused Jet Airways of making it logistically impossible to catch their connecting flight to Hong Kong. The consumer protection agency had the carrier refund the cost of their ticket as well as pay Rs 75,000 in damages — peanuts, perhaps, in the larger scheme of things, but to many an air traveller, just desserts for negligence and inability to operate on time.

Travellers’ tales